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Court to rule on Senate committees decision

Student Government (SG) Supreme Court entered a 48-hour recess Wednesday night to deliberate on appeals by a USF student for a case against an SG member.

Now, President Pro Tempore Matthew Diaz has to wait.

Brian Goff, a freshman majoring in biomedical sciences, filed an appeal earlier this month when an SG committee decided not to move forward with charges against Diaz for failure to update the legislative area of the SG Web site.

Christian Marble, the chair of the committee, said it made its decision because the issue does not merit impeachment, the minutes are now up to date and Diaz’s job description, outlined on the SG Web site, is vague.

During the appeal hearing, Goff said the committee made its decision based on the severity of the charges.

“Out of the 37,000 words in the statutes, you will not find severity as one of them,” he said during the hearing. “During the impeachment proceedings, committee members proceeded to dance around the issues.”

In the impeachment memo, which he filed last month, Goff cited nonfeasance – a failure to perform an act that is either an official duty or legal requirement, according to SG statutes.

SG Attorney General Cordell Chavis, who represented the impeachment committee Wednesday, said Goff has a political bias, referring to his affiliation with Christopher Leddy, who ran for president in this year’s election.

“These students cite that if Mr. Goff was so concerned of the performance of Senate President Pro Tempore he would have noted (it) five months ago when he discovered that such allegations took place,” Chavis said, “not conveniently during the middle of Senate President Pro Tempore’s election of vice president.”

But Goff said he did not have a bias. Diaz ran for SG vice president in this year’s election
along with SG Director of University and Community Affairs Andrew Cohen. The pair lost in a runoff election last week.

The senate impeachment committee recommended a notification of noncompliance
be issued to Diaz for not updating the Web site.

Diaz said this issue indirectly relates to him and is between Goff and the impeachment committee.

“I do stand with the decision of the senate because it exercises its democratic side,” he said.

The court should make a decision by next week.